THIS is NOT a hoolie memoir, say the publishers. And the author says: "I didn't really want to do a hooligan book, because I think people have had enough of them and they're boring.

"But when I started on it, the guy at the publishers said 'There's not enough hooliganismin it', so I had to put more in. I suppose it sells books. I understand where he's coming from".

Today, Nicky Allt, who was brought up in Kirkby, is a married, 42-year-old, father-of-two. He has given up his life as a builder and businessman to follow his dream of being a writer.

But, in a former life, the man who still follows Liverpool FC ran with the "Anfield Road End crew" - often straight into trouble.

Before I can ask the question, Nicky tells me: "I was involved, I was there, but I wasn't a nailed-on hooligan".

Later, he admits: "From 1977 to 1981, you could probably call me a little football hooligan. But only because when you went away to watch football at that time you were always confronted with violence.

"More than anything, I was a scallywag who bunked into grounds left, right and centre." He adds: "When I look back at some of the things I've done I think they were crazy. I had no money, but nothing was going to stop me from getting to those European finals.

"I'd have hurt anyone to go and see Liverpool in those games. That's how much I wanted to go.

"We used to get up to no good. We'd be dressed in rags, but come home in new clobber - but it was never big-time thieving".

Nicky Allt was a master bunker; he bunked and blagged his way onto trains, ferries and into football grounds across Europe. There is a problem here - and he knows it.

The guilty men may not have paid for their actions - or lack of them - at Hillsborough on April 15, 1989 (isn't that right, officers?) but some clowns were quick to spread the lies that it was Liverpool fans, perhaps Liverpool fans bunking in, who killed Liverpool fans (isn't that right, Mr Clough?) on that dreadful day.

Brian Clough may have since seen the error of his ways, but aren't all the bunking stories in your book going to give people the wrong kind of ammunition?

"I knew this would be a big, big question", says the author. "But I have tried to report things as they happened. There was a 'Bunkers' Society' - hundreds of people bunked in and some of them, who are now in their 40s and 50s, are still bunking in".

In the book, he tells the story of Liverpool's championship clincher at Wolves, at the end of the 1975/76 season: "My lasting memory . . . was of the thousands of fans who got into the ground without paying, by using whatever methods they had to".

Later, he writes: "I would some-times think of the Wolves game, when locked turnstile gates were opened up and huge holes were knocked in walls for thousands of Reds fans to gain entry . . . any adverse incident that day would undoubtedly have been our own fault."

Although Nicky says he's done nothing "hooligan-wise" since the early 1980s, he admits that he "lamped" a taunting Manchester United fan after an FA Cup defeat at Old Trafford in 1999: "I hit him on the jaw so hard that I cracked a knuckle and probably his jaw in the process. The mouthy **** went fast asleep and even though I was tempted to throw a few volleys to the head, I didn't.

"I take no pride in telling you this, in fact I felt like a bit of a d***head for letting a game of football and a half-a***d hooligan get to me that way".

At the start of the book, Nicky says: "We were the boys, we were always the boys and anyone worth his salt and honest enough to admit it knew that we were the boys".

Which is pretty clear. But how would today's Nicky Allt sum things up? "All I've done is say what happened. I think people will see someone who has now grown-up".

* The Boys From The Mersey: The story of Liverpool's Annie Road End Crew (Football's First Clobbered-up Mob) by Nicky Allt. Published by Milo Books on April 17 (£15.99)

ALLT ON ... HEYSEL

Large groups of young lads were gathering along the wire barrier and mounting charges to get at the Italians. I don't believe they intended to do more than chase off the spitting Juve fans, or get the police to take them to another part of the ground .

Now if you want to blame the highly-provoked Liverpool fans for charging at the fence, that's up to you, but it's like saying the following: if a large fight breaks out in a nightclub between two gangs - which would be a normal occurrence if someone spat in someone else's face - and one of the gangs ran away, starting a bit of a stampede towards the doors, and the walls or stairs collapsed because a few too many people were on them at one time, causing people to die, who would you blame?

The person who spat in the first place? The gang who did the chasing? The gang who ran away? Or the stampeding people for trying to get away too quick-ly? It's none of them for me. I would say the blame lies squarely with the money-grabbing nightclub owner who may have not only skimped on the building and safety work but had put on inadequate security before taking people's money to enter an unsafe environment.

ALLT ON ... HILLSBOROUGH

The pessimism I feel when writing, or even thinking about this, fills me with doubt and despondency about our so-called justice for all. So much so that I was all but ready to head a chapter like this: 'HILLSBOROUGH: THE MASSIVE COVER-UP End of chapter'.

ALLT ON ... LIFE AFTER HEYSEL AND HILLSBOROUGH

The tragedies at Heysel and Hillsborough had made Liverpool's supporters look at the bigger picture and see that football wasn't the only thing in life; that fighting with other supporters seemed futile and a waste of time.